AIDS activism, stigma and violence: A literature review.

yesThis paper provides an overview of the literature on AIDS activism, stigma, and violence. The literature on AIDS activism, stigma and violence discussed suggests that the physical, emotional and social violence that AIDS as a disease, and stigma as a social construct tied to that disease, can be turned into an empowering experience that joins HIV positive people in productive and constructive networks, that this empowerment fundamentally changes one¿s identity, and that such disease-based identities are reshaping notions of citizenship around the globe. This hypothesis is built, however, on theory and on experiences in a) richer countries with a completely different epidemiology than that of sub-Saharan Africa, b) a highly politicised and activist country such as South Africa, and on c) initial ethnographic evidence from West African countries. Although this seems enough evidence to tentatively observe a trend, we need far more evidence from diverse contexts if this transformative potential is to be explored to the full. The paper concludes by drawing out a research agenda

Precarious future: Community volunteers and HIV/AIDS in a Tanzanian roadside town.

yesThis study focuses on a widely promoted belief that community-driven and community-based interventions for development are not only cost-effective, but also just and democratic. In particular, this study examines community-based initiatives with regard to HIV/AIDS in one Tanzanian roadside town. The interventions I discuss suggest that increased community participation does not automatically lead to more equitable access to services, to the empowerment of the poor, or even to the planned service delivery at all. Dependence on local volunteers with multiple motives and interests can hamper the relationship between provider and beneficiary. A concern for minimal state involvement and maximum decentralisation can easily lead to institutional abandonment, and trust in an undefined `community¿ can prevent rather than encourage coordination at community-level. As I discuss below, such factors can result not only in a service not being delivered, but can also readily lead to increased local conflict over scarce resources, increasing unfulfilled expectations, affirmation of inequalities, and government neglect. In the absence of a strong institutional framework such as the state, community structures and social relationships ¿ unquantifiable and often particular to specific locations ¿ seem central to the functioning of community-based development interventions, including those of AIDS related prevention and care.DfI

Between Fatigue and Silence:The Challenges of Conducting Research on Sexual Violence in Conflict

This paper discusses the meanings of research fatigue and silences in conflict-related sexual violence research. Drawing on field experiences in Liberia, Tanzania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Peru, we discuss some of the unintended consequences of persistent focus on victim-survivors’ narratives and argue for a reflexive feminist perspective that allows us to question the need and context of interviewing survivors and the associated insistence on disclosure

Women in sisterhood resisting violence in Guatemala

A fire in a state-run shelter in Guatemala in 2017 brought together a group of women who have been fighting for justice for the victims ever since in this case. Cathy McIlwaine, Jelke Boesten (King’s College London) and Rebecca Wilson (Latin American Bureau) recall this incident and other two experiences of grassroots work throughout Latin America and the UK in the upcoming podcast series Women Resisting Violence

Sororidad para resistir la violencia de género en Guatemala

Un incendio en un hogar estatal en Guatemala en 2017 reunió a un grupo de mujeres que, desde entonces, han luchado para hacer justicia hacia las víctimas de este caso . Cathy McIlwaine, Jelke Boesten (King’s College London) y Rebecca Wilson (Latin American Bureau) recuerdan este incidente y otras dos experiencias de trabajo comunitario en América Latina y Reino Unido dentro de la serie de podcasts Women Resisting Violence

Response to the Draft of the ‘Global Code of Conduct for Investigating and Documenting Conflict-Related Sexual Violence’

Submission, The Murad Code Project, Institute for International Criminal Investigations and Foreign and Commonwealth Offic